Jury Awards $11.4 Million In Business Fraud Lawsuit

An Alabama jury awarded $11.4 million last month to HTI, a Birmingham company, and Ligon Capital, a hydraulic cylinder company it owns. The jury found that CNH America acted fraudulently while negotiating with a competitor of the hydraulic company, HTI, before CNH ended its business with HTI in 2008. The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court in 2009, contended that HTI was left holding more than $2 million in specialty products CNH had ordered and another $300,000 in products it delivered without payment. HTI also had paid for unreimbursed expedited freight costs, the lawsuit said.

Jurors found that CNH had a duty to disclose its plans to replace HTI as a supplier and the jury found CNH deliberately chose to defraud the Plaintiff during the business relationship. Ligon Capital and HTI were awarded $3.8 million in compensatory damages and $7.6 million in punitive damages.